This holiday hotspot soon won't have an emergency department

Batemans Bay hospital and emergency department to close next year despite lingering fears In short: Batemans Bay's hospital and emergency department will close next year when the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital in Moruya opens, despite the region being a popular holiday destination with a growing population. Many local residents are concerned about the additional time it will take to travel the 30 kilometres from Batemans Bay to the new hospital's emergency department. The New South Wales government says the new hospital will provide "better, definitive care" to residents because it offers a higher level of care and broader range of services. When Christine Hayes suffered a stroke at her Surfside home on the New South Wales South Coast every minute counted as she waited for medical help to arrive. An ambulance came and took her to the Batemans Bay Hospital's emergency department where she says she received treatment within 20 minutes. "The nurses and doctors there saved my life," she said. But that very emergency department where she says her life was saved will close its doors early next year, despite the region being a popular holiday destination with a growing population. The decision to close the Batemans Bay Hospital and its emergency department was made when the New South Wales government committed to building the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital in Moruya — 30 kilometres away. "My heart is also an issue now. I worry that if I have a heart attack, or if I have another stroke, and have to go to Moruya, it's going to be too long before I get there," Ms Hayes said. The additional travel time to reach an emergency department is what also worries local GP Dr Andrew Gibson. "My concern is that there's almost 20,000 people in Batemans Bay, swelling to almost 80,000 between Christmas and Easter, and these people will have to go 30 kilometres for urgent medical treatment," he said. "I think that is a dangerous thing and it doesn't have to be if we had maintained an emergency facility in Batemans Bay." Additional travel time The new level four Eurobodalla Regional Hospital is being built south of the Moruya township on the Princes Highway, and will replace both the existing level three Moruya and level two Batemans Bay hospitals. Being a level four hospital, the $330 million facility will offer a higher level of care and wider range of services than the existing hospitals, including a paediatric ward and intensive care unit, and is expected to reduce the number of patients that need to be transferred to other hospitals like Canberra and Bega. The government says the site was chosen in part for its centrality within the shire, which stretches 110 kilometres along the coast from South Durras in the north to Narooma in the south. Both NSW Health Minister Ryan Park and local member for Bega Michael Holland say it will only take an ambulance 15 to 20 minutes to travel from Batemans Bay to the new hospital. "Health Infrastructure consulted Transport for NSW on the location of the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital," Mr Park said in a statement. "The site was selected with existing roads and traffic taken into consideration. "We are working closely with NSW Ambulance to build on our already strong processes ahead of the new hospital opening – ensuring timely access to emergency medicine and care wherever it is needed in the Eurobodalla." But community action group Don't Close Batemans Bay ED questions whether the trip can be done in that time. "These guys are out of touch," group founder Peter Ryan said. "We've actually measured it under the lights and sirens situation from the Batemans Bay CBD to the new hospital site – it's 29 minutes at best." 'Bridge is a bottleneck' There is only one bridge crossing the Moruya River into the north of the town, and during busy holiday periods traffic can be seen backing up over the bridge and along the Princes Highway — sometimes stretching for kilometres. The NSW government has long-term plans to build a bypass around Moruya and a preferred route was announced in July 2024. But funding has yet to be allocated for the project, with construction costs now estimated to be more than $1.7 billion. "The bridge is a bottleneck," Dr Gibson said. "Even with a clear run, it's 30 minutes [from Batemans Bay]. "Nobody could ever believe that treatment in the back of an ambulance by paramedics, no matter how well trained they are, is better than treatment by emergency-trained doctors in an emergency department." Dr Gibson is particularly concerned for those living north of the Batemans Bay bridge in areas such as Nelligen. "In emergency medicine there's a thing called the golden hour, and that's the most important time in an urgent medical problem," he said. "What happens in the first hour, it very often may decide life survival or not surviving. So that's why it's important people ... can be treated immediately." But Dr Holland does not see the additional travel time or congestion on the bridge as being an issue for Batemans Bay residents. "Ambulances are allowed to exceed the speed limit and ... they're used to handling traffic obstructions," he said. "I spent 23 years of my career being on call for either Batemans Bay or Moruya District Hospital, and I can tell you that the majority of that time there is no traffic [on the bridge]." Holiday-makers and elderly residents More than 19,300 people live in greater Batemans Bay, with the population swelling to some 80,000 over summer. And with planning submissions currently before council for more apartment complexes and holiday units, and hundreds of new homes under construction in areas like West Rosedale, the Batemans Bay greater population is only expected to grow. Eurobodalla Shire mayor Mathew Hatcher said in recent years, tourists had been frequenting the region more and more. "We're seeing that [tourist] swell more year round as well. It's not just in those summer weeks,"he said. "Weekends now, we're seeing a lot of our Canberran friends coming down the mountain." Batemans Bay also has a large elderly population many of whom, Dr Gibson said, had chosen to retire in the area thinking there was a hospital close by. He treats dozens of patients at three of the area's five aged care facilities, and said travel to and from Moruya would be difficult for many elderly residents. "Taxis [from Moruya] are prohibitively expensive. A lot of the older people don't drive. Certainly a number of them wouldn't drive to Moruya," Dr Gibson said. 18,000-strong petition Dr Gibson and Ms Hayes are far from the only ones concerned, with some 18,000 people signing a petition to keep the Batemans Bay ED operational once the new Eurobodalla Hospital opens. "We were completely blindsided," Mr Ryan, who helped organised the petition, said. "The community didn't know they were losing their ED as part of the new hospital." The petition was presented and discussed in the NSW Legislative Assembly but Mr Ryan said it had not progressed from there. "The [government] is playing Russian roulette with lives. Lives will potentially be lost," Mr Ryan said. "It's a big population and we need to have some form of emergency department ... so people can be triaged in the first instance, life saved, and then they can get [further] care after." The Eurobodalla Shire Council has also voted unanimously to lobby the state government against closing the ED, but Mr Hatcher said the government was steadfast in its decision. "Ultimately, it's been made pretty clear by the state at all levels from the Premier down that they will not be changing their tune," he said. 'Better, definitive care' Dr Holland, who worked as an obstetrician in the region for more than 20 years before entering politics, has rejected the assertion that lives could be lost because of the ED closure, and said the new hospital would in fact provide better care. "The emergency department in itself will have more treatment spaces compared to the [current] two emergency departments combined," he said. "It's better care for people to have definitive care rather than present to a level two hospital where not all facilities are available, only to be then transferred to another hospital." Dr Holland said the region could only have a higher care level four hospital service by combining the existing ED presentation of both Moruya and Batemans Bay. "By keeping two hospitals open, you can't achieve that greater provision of care because of the challenges in retaining staff and workforce," he said. Dr Holland also noted that Batemans Bay now had a Medicare-funded Urgent Care Clinic with extended opening hours. "People from south of Narooma will have to travel distances to get to this new level four hospital and people from Batemans Bay will have to travel a distance," Dr Holland said. "But it is a compromise of that travel versus the increased services, broader range of services, increased specialised services and definitive care that people will get."